Emmaus: A Lesson in the Importance of Holy Communion

One of the strongest arguments between Catholics and Protestants is regarding the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. As we know, Protestants take Communion as a symbolic gesture, something that is good for a person to participate in purely as a remembrance of Our Lord’s actions on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. They resist naming it a real, visceral participation in the sacrifice on Good Friday, and subsequently the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, because they argue that Jesus died and rose once for all. They fail to comprehend how eternity is at once past, present, and future in one single, connected moment, which makes something that occurred two thousand years ago at once as alive and present as if it had just happened today.

There are plenty of good arguments that Catholic theologians make about the True Presence to refute Protestant assertions that Holy Communion is symbolic. John 6, various references in the apostolic epistles, and understanding the framework of the Jewish Passover which was transcended by Christ’s Passion are all excellent pieces of evidence. But today, in this Easter season, I would like to highlight the importance of the road to Emmaus as a resounding argument as to why Jesus is Truly Present in the Eucharist, not just symbolically.

Setting the Stage

So let’s think back to the course of events on the road to Emmaus. What happens? The Gospel of Luke tells us that on the morning of the Resurrection, two of Our Lord’s disciples are walking the road to Emmaus. They are deep in conversation about the events that have transpired. Luke tells us that Emmaus was seven miles from Jerusalem; seven was a number of fulfillment in the Scriptures, so to the disciples that number carried great significance for them in the events that were about to transpire.

The disciples are going to Emmaus because it’s close enough to Jerusalem for them to be within communication distance of the others, but far enough away that it’s harder for the authorities to hunt them. We know that they did not leave Jerusalem right away for Emmaus, because later in the passage they’ll recount knowing what the women found when they reached the tomb of Jesus early in the morning. They’re retreating to Emmaus in the face of all this information – Jesus arrested, dying, and now the empty tomb – to wait and see what happens. Because all of this is confounding for them, they’re naturally talking about it along the way to Emmaus.

Here they are, deep in conversation, trying to make sense of everything that’s been happening, and Jesus appears and draws near to them on the road. Luke explicitly tells us that the two of them did not recognize Jesus.

The First-Ever Bible Study

When Jesus asks the two what they’re talking about, they explain their astonishment at events and their sorrow that Jesus has died, because they thought Him to be the Messiah. They recognize strange things are happening, but they’re having a little trouble connecting all the dots and figuring out what everything means.

Jesus tells them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into His glory? (Luke 24:25-26) Rather than abandoning them in their ignorance, though, Jesus proceeds to launch into a detailed explanation of all of the Scripture passages pointing to Him from the past, and how they all foretold the events that had just taken place. We can infer from the passage that this would’ve taken a considerable bit of time in the telling, and we can imagine how increasingly engrossed in what Jesus was saying the two disciples would’ve been.

But here is the most astonishing thing: even with Jesus explaining all of those verses to them in detail, His disciples still did not recognize Him. When Jesus acts like He’s going to continue on His way when the two are stopping for the night, neither one of them says to each other “It is the Lord” or anything to that effect. The Gospel writers, in all of the narratives around the Resurrection, usually make plain to their readers when one or more of the disciples has the revelation that the mysterious, knowledgeable stranger in their midst is actually Jesus. Luke’s omission of that here is just as telling as if he’d made an explicit statement.

The Eucharist Made the Difference

We know from later verses in this passage that the hearts of the two disciples had been burning the entire time Jesus has been telling them all of the passages from the Scriptures pointing to Himself (Luke 24:32). Yet despite their hearts burning, neither one of them offers any sign of recognition towards Him.

Luke explicitly tells us, “While He was at the table with them, He took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:30-31). Note the sequence of events: Jesus says the blessing, breaks the bread, and then the eyes of the disciples are opened to recognizing Him. They recognized Him finally, comprehensively, in the breaking of the bread. Not symbolically recognizing Him, but literally recognizing Him in the breaking of the bread. The Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and arrangements of events have to be attended to closely. It’s not an accident that Luke details the sequence of events thus: the breaking of the bread is the decisive factor that brings recognition of the Presence of Jesus.

Jesus is the Word of God. If His Presence in the Eucharist was intended to be symbolic, at any point while He was expounding on the passages pointing to Him from the Old Testament to the disciples they should’ve been able to recognize Him. If His Presence is symbolic, but His Presence in the Word is literal, why were they unable to recognize Him when He was speaking that same Word to them? The answer is that the Eucharist is the source and foundation of our union with Christ!

The disciples had the first-ever Bible study with the world’s greatest teacher on the subject (the Word Himself)! Recognition of Christ’s Presence did not come without the breaking of the bread, even with all of the great Scripture lessons the disciples had received. If we desire to encounter Christ’s Presence, if we desire for our hearts to recognize Him, the road to Emmaus tells us that the Eucharist is the most supreme thing that opens our eyes to truly see Him and rejoice in Him.

The Eucharist is Effective Grace

When Jesus disappears from their sight, the disciples say to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us…?” (Luke 24:32) Their hearts were burning within them, yet it was the Eucharist that drove them to recognition and action.

How do we know this? Because as soon as Jesus disappears from their sight, the very first thing the two disciples do is immediately set out back the way they had come to go tell the others what happened to them. This is an extraordinary thing. Remember that the entire reason why Jesus had gone in to stay with the two disciples was because evening was drawing on; nighttime was an extremely dangerous time to travel during that era. Robbers and all sorts of mishaps awaited travelers on the road. The Gospel tells us, “That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem” (Luke 24:33). That same hour. That means that with night coming on, those two got up and went the entire seven miles back to Jerusalem, through the dangers of the road and into the dangers of the Jewish leaders, to tell the others what they had seen!

Remember that these were two men who were fleeing from Jerusalem out of fear. They had the entirety of the Scriptures poured out to them, but the thing that ignited the spark and sent them running back to Jerusalem to testify to seeing the Risen Lord was the Eucharist. The Eucharist is not, then, merely a symbol but a real grace given to us by God to empower us to do things against the odds!

Learn the lesson of the two disciples going to Emmaus. See how powerfully Christ is made Present in the Eucharist, and treat our Sunday/holy day obligations accordingly. Jesus is willing to humble Himself so that we can see Him and touch Him, and in so doing carry out the lives that He is calling each one of us to live. Find your Emmaus moments, and live them out, by receiving Him!